Despite overwhelming testimony from agencies and members of the construction industry in opposition to the move, the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) voted 8-2 on July 29 to support the use of the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 5000 Building Code, NFPA 1 Fire Code, along with the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Official’s IAPMO Plumbing and Mechanical Code. The CBSC also voted to support the use of the International Residential Code, but without the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing divisions.

The vote from the commission requires the agencies that oversee the construction of state facilities—such as schools, health-care facilities, and housing—to use these codes for enforcement. These same agencies testified in support of the adoption of the International Code Council (ICC) family of codes because of the ease with which they can make the necessary changes to the codes.

The debate over adoption of either the ICC or NFPA family of codes continues across the country. ICC’s International Building Code (IBC) has been adopted and is or will be in use in 32 states. The most recent jurisdictions adopting the IBC include West Virginia; Nebraska; Louisiana; Washington; and Scottsdale, Ariz. Thirteen states have also adopted the companion International Fire Code. One small Texas city near Houston (Pasadena) has adopted the NFPA Building Code. Nine additional states have statewide building codes and continue to use one of the three previous model codes. In addition to California, New Mexico and the City of Phoenix are actively considering which codes to adopt. Phoenix currently is considering NFPA 5000, albeit a highly modified version significantly different from the model document.

Challenges ahead
California State Architect Stephan Castellanos, FAIA, testified that his staff estimated it will take at least three times the review time to bring NFPA 5000 online for school construction. Given the budget crunch the state is currently experiencing, that means either the work by his staff on school construction in California will be delayed or the work to prepare the new codes will be delayed until 2006 or later. Testimony from the public and industry overwhelming opposed the use of NFPA 5000. Similar sentiments were expressed by construction industry representatives, including architects, building owners, Silicon Valley industries, contractors, unions, structural engineers, the league of cities, building officials, and fire protection officials who nearly unanimously favored the ICC Codes.

Only California’s fire chiefs’ organizations, firefighters, a few fire protection consultants, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), and several disabilities rights representatives spoke on behalf of the NFPA codes. These groups in general indicated that the NFPA codes provided greater protection to firefighters and that the NFPA code-development process was more open and inclusive and provided ANSI-approved consensus.

Steven R. Winkel, FAIA, a governor-appointed member of the 11-person California Building Standards Commission who also serves on the commission’s code change committee, reports that not all the firefighters groups are in favor of adopting the NFPA codes. “The fire services are quite split; I think every fire chief in California belongs to a different fire chiefs umbrella organization,” Winkel says. “We heard testimony from too many chief's groups to count, split between NFPA and ICC.”

Representatives from NFPA staff and ICC gave summary statements prior to the final vote by the CBSC. Both organizations indicated their commitment to the state and promised development of educational tools and staff to provide support for the agencies as they progress through the adoption process.

Next steps
The CSBC vote is mandatory for the state agencies affected. According to the State Architect’s office, these agencies will now work to develop a timeline for preparing a package of amendments that revise the current building codes (which have not been updated since 1998) to align them with the CBSC recommendations. During this process, the amendments will be offered for public comment. Eventually, the CBSC will be asked to adopt and approve these changes. The new regulations will take effect after their publication.

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